By NNN-PTI,
On Board PM’s Special Aircraft : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the G-20 leaders agreed to shun protectionism to tide over the current economic crisis as they asked the multilateral institutions like IMF and World Bank to come out with new facilities to increase their assistance to developing countries.
There was a general agreement that protectionism would be a wrong response to the present situation which would only accentuate the crisis, Singh told reporters accompanying him in his special aircraft on way back from Washington on Sunday, where he attended the G-20 summit.
It was also agreed that international financial institutions like the World Bank, IMF and regional development banks should come out with new facilities to increase their assistance to the developing countries, he said.
“I was very happy that in anticipation of the meeting both the IMF and the World Bank came out with schemes. Though there are doubts that resources available to these institutions are adequate to take care of all the demands that may be made.”
Singh said the meeting endorsed that more resources should be provided to the IMF and World Bank. The Japanese government announced a loan of USD 100 million to the IMF.
“I must say on the whole the climate in the developed world is to recognise that international financial institutions need external resources if they come to the rescue of emerging and other developing countries,” he said.
Asked by what time the global crisis could be over, Singh said he was not not an astrologer and there were apprehensions that the worst has not not still been seen.
“Our effort will be to contain and roll back the crisis. I am afraid I can’t pronounce on any sense of that (any time frame) with authority.”